AI exposure: Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
Set up, operate, or tend woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, and wood nailing machines. May operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment.
Reading this score
computedAt 13.2% of weighted task load, Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing sits at the 21th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 78.3% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 25 tasks it averages 2.66 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Select knives, saws, blades, cutter heads, cams, bits, or belts, according to workpiece,..., at 50.0%. The least is Control hoists to remove parts or products from work stations, at 0.0%. A gap of 50.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within production occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 16.2% across the group's 107 roles, with 63 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 25 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 19 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.83 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.66 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.41 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.39 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.98 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.85 | 0-3 |
Task by task
25 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select knives, saws, blades, cutter heads, cams, bits, or belts, according to workpiece, machine functions, or product specifications. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.19 | exposed |
| Determine product specifications and materials, work methods, and machine setup requirements, according to blueprints, oral or written instructions, drawings, or work orders. | 35.4% | 27.1% | 37.5% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Adjust machine tables or cutting devices and set controls on machines to produce specified cuts or operations. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Change alignment and adjustment of sanding, cutting, or boring machine guides to prevent defects in finished products, using hand tools. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Monitor operation of machines and make adjustments to correct problems and ensure conformance to specifications. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.34 | exposed |
| Set up, program, or control computer-aided design (CAD) or computer numerical control (CNC) machines. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Install and adjust blades, cutterheads, boring-bits, or sanding-belts, using hand tools and rules. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.26 | untouched |
| Set up, program, operate, or tend computerized or manual woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, or wood-nailing machines. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Start machines and move levers to engage hydraulic lifts that press woodstocks into desired forms and disengage lifts after appropriate drying times. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Operate gluing machines to glue pieces of wood together, or to press and affix wood veneer to wood surfaces. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.77 | untouched |
| Start machines, adjust controls, and make trial cuts to ensure that machinery is operating properly. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Examine raw woodstock for defects and to ensure conformity to size and other specification standards. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Inspect pulleys, drive belts, guards, or fences on machines to ensure that machines will operate safely. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Clean or maintain products, machines, or work areas. | 5.2% | 3.1% | 91.7% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Examine finished workpieces for smoothness, shape, angle, depth-of-cut, or conformity to specifications and verify dimensions, visually and using hands, rules, calipers, templates, or gauges. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Feed stock through feed mechanisms or conveyors into planing, shaping, boring, mortising, or sanding machines to produce desired components. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Push or hold workpieces against, under, or through cutting, boring, or shaping mechanisms. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Remove and replace worn parts, bits, belts, sandpaper, or shaping tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Secure woodstock against a guide or in a holding device, place woodstock on a conveyor, or dump woodstock in a hopper to feed woodstock into machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Inspect and mark completed workpieces and stack them on pallets, in boxes, or on conveyors so that they can be moved to the next workstation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Attach and adjust guides, stops, clamps, chucks, or feed mechanisms, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Trim wood parts according to specifications, using planes, chisels, or wood files or sanders. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Grease or oil woodworking machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.56 | untouched |
| Unclamp workpieces and remove them from machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Control hoists to remove parts or products from work stations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.26 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.